"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Monday, April 14, 2014

New Boss Same As The Old Boss: Castroism's International Projection 1959 - 2014

Presented at the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami on April 14, 2014

Fidel Castro lounging with war criminal Mengistu Haile Mariam, in Ethiopia in 1977

The dictatorship in
Cuba has
been in power for 55 years. Despite being an island just 90 miles south
of the
United States it has projected itself internationally to undermine democratic and international human rights standards over that time working through
international institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council. In the 1960s the Castro
regime organized meetings in Havana, Cuba gathering guerrillas and terrorists
from around the world with a common aim to destabilize governments by means of
armed struggle and terrorism was viewed as a legitimate tactic. They were called gatherings of the Tricontinental.

Many focus on the Castro
regime’s involvement in Angola in the 1970s backing a Marxist regime in battles
against anti-communist guerrillas and the South African regime but fail to
mention another important incursion in Africa. In Ethiopia the Castro regime backed Mengistu Haile Mariam with advice, troops and high level visits by both Fidel and Raul
Castro. War crimes such as a provoked
famine and the targeting of ideologically suspect children for mass killings
led to downplaying the role of the Castro regime in the whole affair.

In the 1970s in addition to
supporting guerrillas and terrorists the Castro regime also began an unusual relationship with the military dictatorship in Argentina helping to block efforts
to condemn it at the United Nations Human Rights Commission for thousands of
leftists disappeared by the regime.

In 1979 the Castro regime
found success with the ouster of the Somoza regime and the entrance of Daniel
Ortega and the Sandinistas into Nicaragua. In the early 1980s Cubans had made
inroads into Grenada in the Caribbean.

By the late 1980s with the
collapse of their main subsidizer, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact the
Castro regime was temporarily on the defensive. For the first time since 1959
they felt forced to allow the International Red Cross to visit prisons, allowed
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to enter Cuba in a formal visit as
well as the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The Castro regime had been
one of the few voices applauding the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China congratulating them for "defeating the counterrevolutionary acts.".

These trends would change
dramatically by the end of the 1990s with the warming relations with Mainland
China throughout the 1990s and the arrival of Hugo Chavez to power in Venezuela
in 1999.

For sake of brevity will
highlight here some of the outrages perpetrated by the Castro regime within the
United Nations Human Rights Council.

On March 28, 2008 the Castro
regime’s delegation together with the Organization of Islamic Congress (OIC) successfully passed resolutions undermining international freedom of expression standards at
the United Nations Human Rights Council.

“I
regret that in spite of its clear invitation, the Government of Cuba has not
allowed me to objectively assess the situation of torture and ill-treatment in
the country by collecting first-hand evidence from all available sources.”

On July 15, 2013: “Panama
captured North Korean-flagged ship from Cuba with undeclared military cargo.” On March 6, 2014 the United Nations released a report indicating that the Castro regime was in violation of international
sanctions placed on North Korea and had not cooperated with the investigation.

On March 17, 2014 the UN Human Rights
Council “was divided” in its discussion of the
atrocities in North Korea between
those who want the case to be elevated
to the International Criminal Court and those who reject outright the existence of a commission of inquiry and conclusions. The Castro regime vigorously defended the
North Korean regime and denounced the inquiry.

On March 28, 2014 at the
United Nations Human Rights Council a resolution for “The promotion and
protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests, tried to
safeguard this right” passed but with the narrow defeat of amendments that
would have watered it down led by South Africa with the backing of Algeria,
Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela. Out of that list of countries the one with the closest relationship
with South Africa is Cuba.

UN experts in the past
justified the presence of outlaw regimes such as Cuba and North Korea in the UN
Human Rights Council arguing that it would temper their behavior. Looking at
the Cuban dictatorship’s track record and its successful undermining of
international human rights standards one hopes that these experts will
re-examine their assumptions.